Created Oct 26 2026, last edited Oct 26 2026
I took on my first project management assignment in the automotive industry in 2015, somewhat reluctantly.
A senior manager thought I would make a good project manager. He pointed to my technical understanding and ability to communicate. Still, I hesitated. I think it was because, at my first job, I had seen PROJECT MANAGERS with considerable authority and years of experience. As a newly graduated engineer, I thought: What if I could get there? But I didn’t think about the fact that it was up to me to make it happen.
Between 2015 and 2018, I went on to lead three projects that lasted between six and eighteen months. After that, I became a line manager, then returned to a project management role, responsible for the entire engineering delivery at one company. Later, I was a programme manager at another. To be honest, though, I never felt entirely comfortable in those roles. For a long time, I couldn’t quite put my finger on why.
Now, through a well-defined assignment with my client, I’ve started to find an approach to leadership that feels more natural to me.
Part of the difference was that the project had a clear goal and a steering group with authority within the organisation. But I was also given the space to approach project management from the ground up. It wasn’t about following a ready-made method or reading the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Instead, I had the opportunity to explore a form of leadership that feels authentic to me and a way of working that suits how I operate.
During the process, which also involved learning a great deal about the business and its domain, I kept returning to one question:
How would I want to be led in this situation?
One thing I realised was that a sense of team cohesion is just as important in a project team as it is in a line team. In larger organisations, I had often been given a list of people assigned to the project and then started calling meetings and organising the work. I had rather carelessly assumed that this was simply how things were done.
This time, I started by having one-to-one conversations with everyone on the project team—and made sure we had plenty of time for them. I didn’t know the team, and I was an external consultant. Building personal connections and collegial relationships turned out to be important for creating mutual trust.
I also stopped holding standing weekly meetings where everyone was expected to give a status update “around the table”. I realised that I don’t find that format particularly effective myself. I don’t always listen attentively while everyone takes their turn, and when it comes to me, it isn’t always clear what I’m expected to say.
We still have a weekly meeting, but it has a clearer purpose: reviewing where we are, showing the schedule and milestones, sharing what is happening in the project, communicating changes to our meeting structure, and passing on decisions from the steering group. It is primarily an opportunity for me to communicate with the team. Of course, there is room for questions or anything people want to raise. And it can be kept fairly short—half an hour is enough.
I have also done away with separate issue, open-points and action lists. My client has a well-functioning issue-tracking system, and that is where the work should be recorded. I don’t want to create a parallel to-do list that someone has to maintain. With capable colleagues, clear milestones and deadlines, I don’t need to keep track of everyone’s individual tasks. We are all responsible for managing our own work in the way that suits us.
Instead, I have introduced one-to-one meetings and smaller group meetings—sometimes with two or three people when several are working on the same task. Most team members meet with me about every other week. Together, these add up to three or four follow-up meetings each week, often focused on a specific topic and concrete questions.
I also try to remain available for questions and to review the documents that form part of the project’s deliverables. In one or two cases, I have become involved in specific work where I have relevant experience.
I have also taken time to think through the fundamentals: stakeholders, risk analysis, a communication plan and a dissemination plan—how we share what we have learned. I need to become the person who knows these things best—who else should, if not the project manager? I also thought through a new milestone plan based on the problem we were trying to solve. It needed to be logical, with each milestone marking a genuine point of progress: “Ah, this is how far we’ve come!”
That plan also draws on some of the domain knowledge. I’m not writing this to talk about how well I’ve done, but to highlight the importance of thinking carefully about how you want to run a project. It’s a little like painting a room at home, even if you’re not a painter. What is this really about? What matters? What don’t I know that I need to learn? Where will I need help? What input am I missing to move forward? In what order should I do things? How will I know I’m finished when I’ve painted the last brushstroke?
This has become my own, self-developed approach to project management. And suddenly, project management has become something I genuinely enjoy.